Caleb McNitt, West Ottawa hoops wrestles win from Grandville

Friday

Jan 17, 2014 at 11:17 PMJan 18, 2014 at 12:17 AM

By Lee LambertsSentinel contributor

GRANDVILLE — Two minutes into the fourth quarter Friday night, the Grandville boys basketball team had reduced West Ottawa’s double-digit lead to nine points.Grandville looked poised to trim that number even more after West Ottawa missed a shot and the Bulldogs grabbed the rebound.But Caleb McNitt, who also plays tight end on the West Ottawa football team, wrestled the ball away from the Grandville player as he would have from an opposing defensive back.McNitt’s follow-up shot found the net and the Panthers’ lead was 11 points with 5 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the game.The Bulldogs would get no closer as West Ottawa used free throws down the stretch to hold on for a 58-44 win.“That was really crucial,” West Ottawa coach Steve Windemuller said. “That was a big play. We probably had three or four big plays there in the middle of the fourth quarter.“We’ve been pretty fortunate the last couple of games where we’ve made key plays at critical moments.”McNitt’s basket preceded a series of trips to the free-throw line for West Ottawa players who managed to keep things interesting by missing the front end of bonus situations twice and the back end of similar one-and-ones four times.Grandville was unable to score at the other end, though, and McNitt’s layup with 43 seconds remaining ended the scoring.McNitt said part of his competitive nature has to do with his football mentality. He finished with 12 points and five rebounds.“In those situations, you need something to get your team back on track,” McNitt said. “(Grandville) made a few runs, so we needed something to give us another spark. I guess I just worked hard to get the ball, and thankfully, it went in.“It was definitely cool to make the last basket. It’s always cool to get a basket like that (off the delay offense), but it’s really cool that it sealed the deal.”PJ Trammell added 12 points for West Ottawa, Jared McNitt and Stanely Brown both chipped in 10 points as the Panthers improved to 2-0 in the OK Red and 4-3 overall.“I like four guys in double figures, that’s one of my favorite things,” Windemuller said. “If we can do that on a regular basis, we’re going to be all right.”If there were a negative from Friday night’s game it was West Ottawa’s 21-of-34 shooting (62 percent) shooting from the free-throw line.“I like the 34 (shots) from the line, but we need to get better at that,” Windemuller said. “I’m not sure we’re bad free-throw shooters, it’s just that tonight we were.“I’ve never faulted their effort. They play hard and give it all they’ve got. We had moments (Friday) when we were good and moments when we were not so good.”Alex Bischoff led Grandville (0-2, 0-7) with 12 points.